1Polar Express: No Animation Clause
When securing the movie rights for ''The Polar Express'' (1985), one stipulation was that the resulting film could not be animated. To preserve his vision, Robert Zemeckis opted for motion capture technology during the movie's production.
2. Many choking incidents occur in bathrooms. It turns out that individuals who start choking often feel embarrassed and seek privacy in the bathroom, only to tragically end up alone, often next to a toilet.
3. Japan is home to several "Nose Tombs," containing tens of thousands of severed noses from Korea.
4. The psoas minor is a muscle found in approximately 40% of people. It extends from the back of the midspine to the front of the hips. While everyone possesses a psoas muscle, the minor muscle serves as a smaller counterpart, gently cradling the main muscle. Its role may include contributing to movements involving bending and straightening at the hips.
5. Virtually no commercial planes fly over Tibet. One reason is that, in the event of depressurization or engine failure, planes cannot safely descend to 10,000 feet due to the Tibetan Plateau's average elevation of 14,370 feet.
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6Presidential Desks Through Time
Since the construction of the Oval Office in 1909, a total of six different desks have been used by 20 presidents. The Resolute desk was used by 8 presidents, the Theodore Roosevelt desk by 6, the Hoover desk by 2, the Wilson desk by 2, the C&O desk by 1, and the Johnson desk by 1.
7. The Royal Air Force has banned marshmallows due to their potential to explode.
8. Weezer's "Buddy Holly" music video was included on the Windows 95 installation CD without the band's prior permission.
9. Pope John Paul II had a fondness for Doc Martens boots and generously gifted 100 pairs to the Swiss Guards in the Vatican.
10. Some companies use lead-based dyes to enhance the appeal of color-dependent products, such as spices like chili powder, turmeric, and cumin. In a disturbing turn of events, some businesses add melamine to baby formula because it is high in nitrogen, a substance that scientists measure to determine protein content.
11Neo Geo: Gaming Luxury
The Neo Geo holds the record as the most expensive home video game console ever made, selling for $650 in 1990, equivalent to $1,566.59 today. Originally intended as a rental console, it was released for retail due to high demand.
12. The "Blue Banana" is a geographical region stretching in a banana-like shape from Northern Italy across western Germany and the Low Countries into England's Liverpool region. Some believe this area constitutes the industrial and economic "backbone" of Europe, both presently and historically.
13. In July 2014, upon learning about declining honeybee populations, Morgan Freeman transformed his 124-acre ranch into a bee sanctuary.
14. In 2000, the LA Zoo faced challenges containing two gorillas, Evelyn and Jim, both skilled escapists. Evelyn once used a vine to swing across a 12-foot-wide moat, spending 90 minutes observing giraffes and elephants. On a previous occasion, she swatted a person's behind. Jim once cleared a 12-foot wall with a single jump.
15. Tolkien modified a section of "The Hobbit" while working on "The Lord of the Rings." He changed the part about Gollum betting the ring in a question game and parting ways amicably to Gollum becoming enraged over losing the ring. This alteration reflected the evolving concept that the ring in "The Lord of the Rings" was designed to corrupt its user with greed.
16Robert Ballard's Underwater Discoveries
Robert Ballard, renowned for discovering the wreck of the Titanic, also located the Battleship Bismarck, the aircraft carrier Yorktown, and John F. Kennedy's PT-109. However, his attempt to find Amelia Earhart's plane was unsuccessful.
17. Pilot Hans Lutz retained his job due to a shortage, despite nearly landing in the wrong country and retracting a plane's landing gear before takeoff. Unfortunately, this decision led to a fatal crash when he attempted to land without clear visibility, resulting in the deaths of 23 people, including himself.
18. When Hendrik Verwoerd, the 6th Prime Minister of South Africa, was assassinated in 1966, a bloodstain persisted on the Parliament carpet for 38 years, finally being removed in 2004.
19. There is a specialized airline exclusively for horses, affectionately nicknamed "Air Horse One."
20. Swiss physicist Walter Jaeger accidentally created the smoke detector in the 1930s. While attempting to create a sensor for identifying poison gas, Jaeger's device instead registered his cigarette smoke.
21USS Pueblo Crew's Defiant Gesture
The captive crews of the USS Pueblo secretly communicated defiance to their North Korean captors by displaying the middle finger in photos, disguising it as a Hawaiian gesture for "good luck."
22. In 400 BCE, Ximen Bao, an ancient Chinese hydraulic engineer and philosopher, discovered county elders terrorizing their subjects, demanding a maiden sacrifice to appease a river god. In response, he orchestrated the "sacrifice" of the elders and constructed a canal system to control flooding for the county.
23. Open Skies is an international treaty signed by 34 nations, allowing member states to conduct unarmed surveillance flights over any part of each other's territory.
24. From 1976 to 1987, there were no red M&M candies. The Mars Company, reacting to concerns about Red Dye No. 2, identified as a potential health risk by federal regulations in 1976, temporarily eliminated red food coloring from their products.
25. Laurence Fishburne, credited as "Larry Fishburne" in his earlier movies, including Boyz n the Hood, adopted the name "Laurence" in 1993.
